5 comments:

I try to get my news from as many different sources as possible including both the CBC and SUN News. Admittedly I have to bite my tongue sometimes as I read. The straw that broke the proverbial camel's back with me in regard to SUN News was a recent article in the Toronto SUN depicting my community in very negative terms. Fort Mac gets bashed a lot in the media and I do my best to separate the community from the oil sands activity down the highway. What surprised me was that while SUN News sings the praises of the Oil Sands, the news article I refer to in regard to the community here painted us in a very negative light. Sure we have issues just like everywhere else and a few issues unique to Fort Mac but man, I couldn't help thinking after I read this article...how bad of a "news" network are you when you manage to piss off small "C" conservatives like myself? Needless to say I don't think I'll be creeping around their news network any time soon.

Are you originally from Fort Mac or a transplant due to the oil industry, Way Way Up? I have no idea what negative stuff is reported about Fort Mac (and I don't read The Sun) but I imagine it's no different than any other economic boom town built around resource exploitation. They tend to lack solid foundation for sustainability.

Anyway, Harper and his minion Del Mastro are just playing hateful politics again - this time they're gunning for the CBC. Like Charlie Angus said, the committee meetings were turned into a witch hunt.

Oddly, enough I came here because my fiancee and I felt it was a good place to raise our family. We had spent a year living about an hour away from here and the pace slowly grew on us so we took the plunge. I think the community's foundation for sustainability is stronger than many people think. Even without the oil sands, this place has played a very important role in the development of this country and we have a rich history and culture here. Sadly, we get painted in the media as a one horse town. I don't share this myopic view.

"Mixed Blessings" on APTN. A family dramedy set in Fort MacMurray, showing race, industry and civic pressures good, bad and silly. It's a great show. Ok, I like it.

WWU. Don't forget, the country around there is tourism-r-us postcard arboreal forest (not to mention near an actual sand desert with shifting dunes. No camels but there are bears with humps, do they count?).